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Released: May 20, 2003
International Impressions on American
Culture, People,
Foreign Policy & more
The 10 Nation
"Impressions of America"
Poll Report Introduction excerpts from John Zogby
click for Table of contents
In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, Americans became painfully aware of the gap in understanding between our world and much of the Arab world. Front page headlines and newsmagazine cover stories asked "why do they hate us?' Pundits and scholars across the ideological spectrum offered answers that ranged from the serious to the silly. Some suggested that the behavior of the attackers was not aberrant, but characteristic of Islam and its followers. They suggested that the West and Islam are not only different, but are inevitably headed toward a clash. Others suggested that "they" hate our democratic values, our superpower status, our wealth, and our people. Still others noted that it was our policy of unquestioning support for Israel, our denial of Palestinian rights, and our collaboration with authoritarian regimes in the Middle East that was behind "their" alienation from "us".
In all of this, however, little effort has been made to conduct the kind of opinion research that is done in the United States and West in an effort to probe more deeply into the perceptions and worldview of the Arabs and Muslim people. Some polls, some good and some bad, have been taken. Some polling in Lebanon - conducted by Zogby International partner Information International of Beirut in October and November -- reveal some disturbing currents in that nation. Though limited in scope and focused on one country, that poll demonstrated a deep alienation from and lack of empathy with the United States. A massive multi-country poll by the Gallup organization in early 2002 found much the same. But the Gallup poll has been criticized for promoting and sensationalizing mainly the negative results, for possible pre-poll bias, and for aggregating results in a misleading and inaccurate way. It was in this context that Zogby International launched its own poll of ten countries from March 4 through April 3, 2002.
Our objectives were simple:
- To determine how adults in Arab and Muslim/non-Arab countries feel about specific items relative to the American people and culture.
- To ascertain whether or not these adults differentiate between their feelings toward the American people and culture, on one side, and American policy in the Middle East region.
Our methodology was simple. We conducted face-to-face interviews in five Arab nations - Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. Face-to-face interviews were also conducted in three non-Arab Muslim nations - Pakistan, Iran, and Indonesia. To establish a proper context for our results, we also conducted face-to-face interviews in France and Venezuela.
We have, over the years, developed a unique expertise polling in several Middle Eastern countries. We have polled on the television habits of residents of five Arab countries; attitudes toward the economy and variety of social and political issues in some of these same countries; on the future of information technology in the region; and on detailed voting behavior in the elections in Iran and Israel. If we grant the conventional wisdom, somewhat expressed in the Gallup poll, that "America" is viewed unfavorably, the question we sought to answer was what factors, if any, drive this unfavorable attitude.
The Ten Nation "Impressions of America" Table Of Contents
I. Introduction
II. Methodology and Sample Characteristics
III. Country Specific Results - American Science and Technology
- American Freedom and Democracy
- American People
- American Movies and Television
- American-made Products
- American Education
- U.S. foreign policy
- US policy toward Iraq
- Support for an unilateral Iraq attack
- Opinion of economic sanctions against Iraq
- U.S. Policy towards Palestine and the Arab World
- American-led effort to stop ethnic cleansing in the Balkans
- Importance of Palestine
- Support for Palestine state
- American Involvement in Kuwait
- America's War on Terrorism
Appendices
Appendix A - Graphs by age and Internet access
Appendix B - Cross tabulations by age, Internet access and satellite television Also available is statistical cross tabulation CD, which covers over 400 pages of results covering an array of demographic, geographic and psychographic sub-groups. - Age Group
- Where do you live?
- Gender
- Religious Affiliation
- Marital Status
- Internet Access
- Satellite TV Access
- Newspaper readership
- Citizenship
- Languages besides Arabic
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